Vox is proud to announce that it has become a Google Verified Peering Provider, one of a select group in the South African internet service provision space.

The Verified Peering Provider (VPP) programme identifies a group of ISPs that have demonstrated diverse and reliable connectivity to Google. ISPs are awarded a Verified Peering Provider badge based on technical criteria related to their connectivity depth with Google.

“The Verified Peering Provider programme is a recent accreditation from Google that recognises ISPs with high-quality, optimised connectivity into Google’s global network,” says Chris Burrell, head of network at Vox. “The programme identifies providers that meet stringent technical and capacity standards, including diverse peering links to Google, ensuring faster access, improved performance and greater reliability for customers using Google services.

“The VPP programme is basically a ‘trusted partner’ list. Networks on it can connect directly to Google to access the content in a way that’s fast, safe and of the highest quality. You could think of it as a shortcut to get premium, direct access to Google services and content.”

Vox Customers using Google services such as YouTube, Gmail, Google Workspace, Google Meet and applications hosted on Google Cloud infrastructure will experience improved performance, reduced latency and greater service reliability.

‘Let’s shake hands…’

Burrell notes that in today’s cloud-focused world, Google customers need simple and highly available connectivity solutions to reach publicly available Google resources such as Workspace and other internet-facing applications.

“Peering is like two networks shaking hands and saying, ‘Let’s share traffic and content directly with each other, instead of sending it through a middleman.’ It makes internet usage, including websites, videos, voice and cloud apps, faster and more reliable for users, providing a higher-quality experience,” he says.

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“Many customers connect to Google Workspace, Google Cloud or Google APIs using direct peering or via route server infrastructures at internet exchanges. These solutions provide network operators interconnectivity to Google.

“However, not all Google customers today are able to manage the complex connections of peering, or don’t meet the relevant requirements to maintain the high-quality standards required of content providers. Against this context, using a Verified Peering Provider to connect to Google simplifies connectivity to Google’s network, and removes the complexity of managing direct peering.”

Verified peering providers manage direct peering with Google over dedicated private connectivity with redundancy requirements for each enrolled provider.

When Google customers connect to a verified peering provider to reach Google, they are choosing a provider that has verified diverse connectivity to Google, which enables highly available access to Google services.

Benefits of the Google VPP programme

As Burrell outlines, Google evaluates networks that would like to be peering partners. “Vox went through a stringent application and technical review process showing that we meet their performance, network stability, reliability and capacity standards,” he says. “As a result of our successful application, we are able to offer our customers a number of benefits.”

This includes the following:

Simplified connectivity: There is no need to meet Google’s peering requirement. Instead, customers can leave the complexities of peering arrangements to Vox as a verified peering provider.
High availability: The Google badge shows that the ISP has a highly redundant connectivity to Google.
Enterprise grade connectivity: Customers can connect to Google through internet products designed for enterprises. Furthermore, they can access Google with or without the need for border gateway protocol or an autonomous system number. In addition, customers can work directly with the ISP’s customer services teams and operational escalations.

Burrell clarifies that Vox’s VPP programme is suitable for enterprises and businesses running Google Cloud apps, ISPs or partners reselling internet services, and any tech-savvy user streaming, collaborating or relying on Google services.

Quality and reliability

“Being a verified peering provider ensures Google traffic is routed over well-engineered, high-capacity direct interconnects, reducing unnecessary transit paths and improving consistency. It’s part of Vox’s ongoing investment in network quality and reliability,” he says.

“Vox is proud of this accolade. It’s a mark of trust from Google, and not every local ISP will be able to qualify. It shows that Vox meets high technical standards and can deliver premium internet performance for Google services, making service better for our existing and future customers,” concludes Burrell.